Mar 1 2018: Is there any polling for the Democratic primary in TX District 32? @ColinAllredTX, @EdforTX, @Lillian_Salerno, @brett_shipp all could give @PeteSessions a run, but who has the edge in the primary?

Mar 1 2018: Shipp had the name recognition but not money or organization and has faded on my betting sheet. Meier had the national backing and money and is the (very slight) favorite. Allred and/or Salerno also up there. A run-off is likely.

Mar 1 2018: Dem activists have shown some distaste for @EdforTX. (Too establishment?) Still I think it's going to be a run-off between him and either @ColinAllredTX or @Lillian_Salerno. Sorry George.

Mar 1 2018: "I'm from the Hillary wing!" shouldn't get votes either. Dems need to learn to move on and focus more on the issues (including Trump/Ryan/McConnell) than each other. Country can't survive two dysfunctional parties.

Mar 1 2018: "Texas college baseball coach fired after rejecting Colorado recruit because of state’s weed laws."
I did not see that coming. Kudos to Texas Wesleyan University.

Mar 2 2018: Andrew Sullivan: "At some point, surely even his supporters will have to say that this is finally enough."
lol.

Mar 3 2018: In the mailbox today, five separate mailings from @PhillipHuffines. I just skimmed them but I think his message is, "Vote for me and get the worst government money can buy." I just wish he supported public schools half as much as he supports the USPS.

Mar 4 2018: RT @davidfrum: "The world trading system is in the hands of people who don’t know how it works, when it was built, how it was built, who built it, why they built it, and what the alternatives to that system were and are."
Some quote by Santayana comes to mind, but I can't remember the past well enough anymore to instruct us today.

Mar 4 2018: Plano women roll on to win the UIL state championship, beating Converse Judson 62-58. DeSoto can hold their heads high. They gave Plano everything and more way back in their double-overtime tourney game at RHS. If you didn't go, sucks for you.

Mar 4 2018: RT @TexasTechMBB: "It's unanimous. Keenan Evans has been named first team All-Big 12."
If you didn't see Keenan Evans lead the Rams in the Berkner High School gym, sucks for you. Support high school athletics and our neighborhood kids who play them.

Mar 4 2018: My personal picks (not predictions) from the Oscar nominations went five for five. I'm happy with the voting, even though my personal pick for Best Picture, "Mudbound," wasn't even nominated. In hindsight, I might have over-rated it at the time I saw it.

Mar 5 2018: RT @PatrickSvitek: "End is near in bruising, expensive and arguably nastiest Huffines-Paxton battle."
Amen. I've listened to both candidates malign each other, and I'm inclined to believe them both: neither candidate should be allowed to win in November.

Mar 5 2018: From the Changing-My-Mind Department: Woodrow Wilson's presidency was complicated and had mixed results, but on the whole, I'm now on the side of considering him a dick. davidfrum.com

Mar 5 2018: My twofold theory why "The Shape of Water" won Oscar:
1. Oscar is close to burnout on politics and wanted to go with a fairytale.
2. It's a damn fine movie, one people *will* remember in 15 years.

Mar 5 2018: "The Shape of Water" is subversive and will still look that way in 15 years. Instead of just adding another letter to LGBTQ, it blew up the whole alphabet by featuring an interspecies love story. From now on, love is love is love no matter what.

Mar 5 2018: "The Shape of Water" is timeless. "3 Billboards" is very much a product of its time and will look very dated in 15 years (still, it was my 2nd choice for *this* year's Oscar). And "Call Me By Your Name" already looked dated when it was released (see Brokeback Mountain - 2005).

Mar 6 2018: Game Night (2018): Murder mystery party goes awry when real kidnappers show up. Expect to be guessing what twists are real and what's part of the game right up until the end. Right balance of plausibility and absurdity. Pop some corn. B-

Mar 6 2018: Both @PhillipHuffines and @AngelaPaxtonTX convinced me of the other's unfitness for office, but I admit to feeling especially good that Huffines's money couldn't buy him a Senate seat.

Mar 7 2018: I was wrong. @EdforTX's money not enough to overcome Dem activists dislike of his connections to Hillary. I was right about @brett_shipp, who didn't have the money, the organization or the message. So now the run-off is @ColinAllredTX vs @Lillian_Salerno.

Mar 7 2018: So far @ColinAllredTX hasn't had to address HUD's role in the City of Dallas misusing millions of fed dollars meant to relieve racial segregation. Maybe @Lillian_Salerno will press him. Or @PeteSessions in November.

Mar 7 2018: "RISD has the highest teacher turnover rate among the enrollment/income peer group of districts."
A statistic causing a lot of self-reflection at the red brick building.

Mar 7 2018: Lisa Luby Ryan? Seriously, Lake Highlands?

Mar 7 2018: I considered @JasonVillalba to be a moderate Republican in Austin. Not saying much I know, but still, for him to lose to a wingnut in Dallas County in a supposed "blue wave" year needs some serious explaining.

Mar 7 2018: By the way, I can't be accused of supporting @JasonVillalba. For some reason, he blocked me on Twitter long ago. Lisa Luby Ryan claims "I will listen." We'll see.

Mar 7 2018: Maybe the explanation for Villalba's loss is as simple as this: in 2016, when @JasonVillalba called Donald Trump "a buffoonish, clownish, orange, carnival barking snake oil salesman" his fate in any GOP primary in Texas was sealed. Talking truth to power is always risky.

Mar 7 2018: "The Road Not Taken" is not about self-assertion nor self-deception, as my teachers 50 years ago correctly taught. It's about how random choices now ("both that morning equally lay") can lead to different futures ("all the difference). It's a poetic reflection on chaos theory.

Mar 7 2018: "Democrats boosted their percentage of the Texas primary vote from roughly 30 percent in the last midterm election to 40 percent now. That’s considerable progress, but not an immediate revolution in the balance of power."

Mar 7 2018: One theory (I haven't seen polling numbers) is that more Dems voted in GOP primary than the reverse, and many Dems are likely to come home in November, whereas many of the GOP party-switchers just might stay in the Dem column. If so, a "blue wave" is still a possibility.

Mar 7 2018: It was a bad election night for Gov. Greg Abbott and state's best-funded Tea Party group [Empower Texans]." -- The Texas Tribune.
Yeah, but West Texas oil billionaires have deep pockets.

Mar 7 2018: RT @texassabo: "The anti-vaccine community and friends just handed [Villalba's] seat to the Ds with a bright red bow on top. #txlege"
Don't be too sure, but Ryan is easier to beat than Villalba would have been.

Mar 8 2018: I recently wrote to Dan Patrick expressing my support for high-speed rail. I just got a response. The Lt. Gov. "shares my passion." Hooray, right? He then went, saying nothing about high-speed rail and everything about how he's helping to build more highways. Sigh.

Mar 8 2018: RT @PeteSessions: "While I understand the need to make sure we are engaged in trade deals that put Americans first, a broad set of tariffs would make American businesses less competitive & raise prices on American consumers."
The name of the person who is raising prices that you are trying to think of is Donald Trump.

Mar 8 2018: I'm old enough to remember when Republicans thought Obama, Bush 43, and Clinton were all dupes for even suggesting we be open to talking to North Korea. I'm sure there's an old Trump tweet saying as much.

Mar 9 2018: Critiques of "A Wrinkle in Time" from the Right: "I hate the movie because I'm afraid Oprah might run for President."

Mar 9 2018: The biggest damage party primaries cause is they mislead the public into thinking that political parties are pure democracies.

Mar 9 2018: RT @kacage: "@BerknerBandos perform at Pearl Harbor Memorial."
Isn't this a little like the Bandos performing at Arlington National Cemetery? What am I missing?

Mar 13 2018: Re: McEntee, Tillerson ousters: "How could a guy being investigated for a serious financial crime be so close to Trump for this long?" is one of those questions that didn't even outlast brewing morning coffee before being overtaken by a bigger clusterf*ck this morning.

Mar 13 2018: Re: Tillerson firing...RT @PeteSessions, "While I was surprised by today’s decision..."
Well, then you are the only one surprised. Nothing about this clusterf*ck of a president should surprise anyone anymore. His name is "Trump" by the way. Say it. It's liberating.

Mar 22 2018: If only a politician came along who would promise to drain the swamp.